Joshua 8
1 Then Yahweh said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid or discouraged [because of what happened at] Ai. Lead all of your soldiers and go there again. I will help you to defeat the king of Ai, his people, and his city, and [enable you to take] his land.
And Jehovah said to Joshua, Fear not, neither be thou dismayed. Take all the people of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land.
2 Your army will do to the people of Ai and their king like what you did to the people of Jericho and their king. But this time [I will permit you to] take all their possessions and keep them for yourselves. But first, tell some of your soldiers to [hide behind] the city [and] prepare to suddenly attack it.”
And thou shall do to Ai and its king as thou did to Jericho and its king. Only the spoil of it, and the cattle of it, ye shall take for a prey to yourselves. Set thee an ambush for the city behind it.
3 So Joshua led all his army toward Ai. He chose 30,000 of his best fighters/warriors and prepared to send them out during the night.
So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up to Ai. And Joshua chose out thirty thousand men, the mighty men of valor, and sent them forth by night.
4 He said to them, “Listen carefully. Some of you must hide on the other side of the city. Do not go far from the city. Just be ready [to attack].
And he commanded them, saying, Behold, ye shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city. Go not very far from the city, but be ye all ready,
5 I and the men who are with me will march toward the city [in the morning]. The men in the city will come out to fight us, like they did before. Then we will turn around and start to run away from them.
and I, and all the people that are with me, will approach to the city. And it shall come to pass, when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them.
6 They will think that we are running away from them like we did before. So they will chase us away from the city. While we are running away,
And they will come out after us, till we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say, They flee before us, as at the first. So we will flee before them.
7 [those of you who are hiding come out and] rush into the city and capture it. Yahweh your God will enable you to conquer it.
And ye shall rise up from the ambush, and take possession of the city, for Jehovah your God will deliver it into your hand.
8 After you capture the city, burn it. Do what Yahweh has commanded us to do. Those are the orders I am giving to you.”
And it shall be, when ye have seized upon the city, that ye shall set the city on fire. According to the word of Jehovah shall ye do. See, I have commanded you.
9 Then Joshua [prepared to] send some of them to [hide and] wait between Ai and Bethel, which was west of Ai. But Joshua stayed with his other soldiers that night.
And Joshua sent them forth, and they went to the ambushment, and abode between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai, but Joshua lodged that night among the people.
10 Early the next morning, Joshua gathered his soldiers together. Then he and the other Israeli leaders led them up to Ai.
And Joshua arose up early in the morning, and mustered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai.
11 They all set up their tents close to Ai, just to the north of the city, where all the people of the city could see them. There was a valley between them and the city.
And all the people, even the men of war who were with him, went up, and drew near, and came before the city, and encamped on the north side of Ai. Now there was a valley between him and Ai.
12 Then Joshua chose about 5,000 men and told them to go and hide just west of the city, between Ai and Bethel.
And he took about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.
13 So those men did that. The main group of soldiers was north of the city, and the others were hiding west of the city. That night Joshua went down into the valley.
So they set the people, even all the army that was on the north of the city, and their ambushment that were on the west of the city, and Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley.
14 When the king of Ai saw the Israeli army, he and his soldiers got up early the next morning and quickly went out of the city to fight them. They went to a place east of the city, but they did not know that some Israeli soldiers were hiding behind the city.
And it came to pass, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hastened and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at the time appointed, before the Arabah, but he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.
15 Joshua and the Israeli soldiers [who were with him] allowed the army of Ai to push them back. They ran toward the desert.
And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.
16 The men in Ai were ordered to chase after Joshua and his men. So they left the city and started to pursue the Israelis.
And all the people that were in the city were called together to pursue after them, and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.
17 All the men of Ai and the men of Bethel pursued the Israeli army. They did not leave even one man in Ai to defend it. The [gates of the] city were left wide open.
And there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel. And they left the city open, and pursued after Israel.
18 Then Yahweh said to Joshua, “[Lift up] your spear [and] point it toward Ai, because I am going to enable your soldiers to capture it!” So Joshua pointed [his spear] toward Ai.
And Jehovah said to Joshua, Stretch out the javelin that is in thy hand toward Ai, for I will give it into thy hand. And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city.
19 When the Israeli men who were hiding saw that, they rushed out from the places where they were hiding and ran into the city. They quickly captured it and set it on fire.
And the ambush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand, and entered into the city, and took it. And they hastened and set the city on fire.
20 When the men of Ai looked back, they saw smoke rising from their city. But they could not escape, because the Israeli troops stopped running away.
And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and, behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way. And the people who fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers.
21 Joshua and his men saw that the men who had been hiding had captured the city and were burning it, and they saw the smoke rising. So they turned around and started to attack the men of Ai.
And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again, and killed the men of Ai.
22 Meanwhile, the soldiers who had captured the city came out [and attacked them from the rear]. So the men of Ai were caught between the two groups of Israeli soldiers. None of the men of Ai escaped. The Israelis fought until they killed all of them. Only the king of Ai was still alive.
And the others came forth out of the city against them, so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side. And they smote them so that they let none of them remain or escape.
23 Then they seized the king of Ai and brought him to Joshua.
And they took the king of Ai alive, and brought him to Joshua.
24 While they were fighting, the Israeli army pursued the men of Ai into the fields and into the desert, and killed all of them. Then they went to Ai and killed everyone who was there.
And it came to pass, when Israel had made an end of killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness in which they pursued them, and they were all fallen by the edge of the sword until they were consumed, that all Israel returned to Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword.
25 They killed 12,000 men and women.
And all who fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai.
26 Joshua continued to point his spear [LIT] toward Ai, until all the people in Ai had been killed.
For Joshua did not draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the javelin, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.
27 The Israeli soldiers took for themselves the animals and the other things that had belonged to the people of Ai, just like Yahweh had told Joshua that they should do.
Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took for prey to themselves, according to the word of Jehovah which he commanded Joshua.
28 Joshua and his soldiers burned Ai city and caused it to become a pile of ruins. It is still like that today.
So Joshua burnt Ai, and made it a heap forever, even a desolation, to this day.
29 Joshua hanged the king of Ai on a tree and left his corpse hanging there until the evening. At sunset Joshua told his men to take the king’s corpse down from the tree and to throw it on the ground at the city gate. [After they did that], they piled a lot of rocks on top of the corpse, and that pile of rocks is still there.
And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until the evening. And at the going down of the sun Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree, and cast it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised a great heap of stones on it, to this day.
30 Joshua [told his men to] build on Ebal Mountain an altar for Yahweh, the God [who is worshiped by] the Israeli people.
Then Joshua built an altar to Jehovah, the God of Israel, in mount Ebal,
31 They built it just like Moses, the man who served God [well], had written previously in the laws [that God had given to him]. They made it from stones that had not been cut using iron tools. The Israelis then offered sacrifices to Yahweh that were burned completely on the altar. They also offered sacrifices to restore fellowship with Yahweh.
as Moses the servant of Jehovah commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of unhewn stones, upon which no man had lifted up any iron. And they offered burnt offerings on it to Jehovah, and sacrificed peace offerings.
32 As the Israelis watched, Joshua wrote on stones the laws that [Yahweh had given] to Moses previously.
And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote, in the presence of the sons of Israel.
33 The Israeli leaders, the officials, the judges, and other Israelis were there, standing nearby. Many people who were not Israelis were also there. Half of the people stood [on one side of the valley] below Ebal Mountain, and the other half of the people stood [on the other side of the valley] below Gerizim Mountain. The sacred chest was [in the valley] between the two groups. That was what Moses had previously commanded that the people should do when [Yahweh was about to] bless them.
And all Israel, and their elders and officers, and their judges, stood on this side of the ark and on that side before the priests the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, as well the sojourner as the home born, half of them in front of mount Gerizim, and half of them in front of mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded at the first, that they should bless the people of Israel.
34 Then Joshua read [to the people] all that [Moses] had written previously. That included what Yahweh had taught them and the ways [that he promised] to bless them [if they obeyed his commands], or to curse them [if they disobeyed them].
And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law.
35 All the Israelis gathered together [to listen]—the men, the women, and the children. The (foreigners/people who were not Israelis) who were living among them also listened, while Joshua read all the commands that Moses had written.
There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who were among them.
